MARCH 2015 ISSUE

The 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll: How Superstitious Are You?

Even those who say they’re not superstitious do superstitious things, in high numbers (85 percent say, “God bless you”) or low (about half of us make a birthday wish, more than a third cross our fingers). And the older we are, the less superstitious we are. Some 42 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds describe themselves as “not at all” superstitious, but for the 65-plus crowd that percentage goes up to 69. And it’s younger Americans who are more likely to recognize the quote “God does not play dice with the universe” as Albert Einstein’s—39 percent got it right, and that number drops steadily as the age groups get older.

Speaking of God, Americans are evenly divided on which is less logical, evolution or creationism. Democrats and Republicans aren’t especially evenly divided; we’ll let you guess precisely how. Protestants and Catholics also fall into different camps on the question, with more Protestants than Catholics finding evolution illogical, and more Catholics than Protestants having trouble with creationism.

Much general agreement, however, on predicting the future: two-thirds of us wouldn’t entrust that to anyone or anything—not to a horoscope, a psychic, or a fortune cookie.

By Jane Burton (TOP), By Dave King/Getty Images (BOTTOM). Both from Getty Images.

This poll was conducted on behalf of CBS News by Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pennsylvania, among a random sample of 1,016 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone December 3–7, 2014. Some low-percentage answer choices have been omitted.